[quote=“The Runt”]Who was responsible for those?
There is one there somewhere around Clonmel I think. Absolutely mental.[/quote]
Essential at ferryports and airports I would have imagined, but Clonmel ffs:rolleyes:! I doubt there’s thousands of continental tourists down there to look at a few apples.
I heard a story a few years back about the town council in Clonmel* sending 5 or 6 of their finest representatives to a high rise building conference somewhere in Asia. They know their priorities in Tipperary.
*could have been another town but was definitely in Tipp.
Also in Kilcolgan.
Up there with the most retarded waste of public money anyway.
whatever about there being tourists down there Ben, How to fuck would they get from a ferry port/airport all the way to Clonmel driving on the wrong side of the road?
I suppose the hubby could be driving, and after the visit to Clonmel the missus might take over at the wheel, being a woman she’d most definitely forget to drive on the left hand side of the road.
Reading there in The Sunday World that apparently if you are on Welfare and have a dog, you can claim an allowance of €12 per week to feed it :o
I’m pretty sure all our pets vet fees are paid for aswell. I must get myseld more dogs.
NAMA. Saving Anglo and Nationwide. Martin Cullen was rightly castigated for being the Minister responsible for paying $60m for evoting machines that didnt work. Brian Lenihan is hailed as a hero for wasting what is is now 22bn euro into anglo alone. Nothing will ever come close. Close thread
I like the banks. I gave them a fiver last week.
What would you have done?
passed legislation to enable temporary nationalisation of the banks as their boards couldnt be trusted to give out the truth. all board officials and executives sacked on the spot. dont think too many would have sued for unfair dismissal in any case. Then wound Anglo and Irish nationwide down and sent in the liquidators. Merged BOI and AIB together, cut costs to the bone, appointed a shit hot management team and lashed capital into it to have one decent bank which Santander or one of those would hopefully take over. When Barings bank went bust the British govt didnt have to jump in. Other banks have gone bust over the years but government dont step in.
Fair enough it is easy to be wise after the event but the likes of Lenihan are put in the position to make decisions. To be fair to him he made two good appointments - Elderfield and Honohan but the State have grossly overpaid for the NAMA experiment and it is upon this which his policial epitaph should be based.
Create a Government owned Monopoly?
I think they call that communism.
Desperate times call for desperate measures comrade. The current situation with the govt owning shares in a rake of banks is hardly fair towards the non NAMA banks either.
The whole country would be fucked if you merged the two banks. They could do whatever they wanted then and with no competition they’d get lazy and bloated like all government entities.
If you let the banks go bust you would’ve bankrupt every person & every company in this country. You surely can not be advocating that.
I think you are completely forgetting about one thing in all of this - the EU. How many banks collapsed in the EU? None. There seemed to be a policy right across the Union to bail out banks, RBS in the UK, Hypo in Germany. I think the decision was out of Lenihan’s hands to a certain extent.
But there is no doubt - Anglo and Nationwide and absolutely crippling this country and will do for many years to come.
The cunts.
Its a great country all the same.
COUNCILLORS last night said they were “flabbergasted” to discover €170,000 was spent on a new bus stop and shelter, more than the cost of a two-bed apartment in Dublin.
The “crazy” spending by cash-strapped Dublin City Council took place despite massive cuts imposed by the council in recent months.
The bill for the stop outside Dublin City University (DCU), on Collins Avenue, came to €100,000, including the “upgrading” of the stop for wheelchair use. But the cost swelled by a further €70,000 because of “coincidental” works, said officials.
The actual bus shelter itself was provided by Bus Eireann, at a cost of around €30,000, but the taxpayer did not have to pay this sum as it was financed by advertising revenue.
The mammoth spend comes despite stringent cutbacks by the council. Last year it introduced €30m in spending cuts – a move which included a 5pc cut across many services.
But last night independent Dublin councillor Cieran Perry called for an investigation into the cost of the bus stop.
“I am flabbergasted and stunned at the crazy amount spent on this project,” he said.
“There should be an immediate investigation launched into this to ensure the money was legitimately spent.”
Dublin city manager John Tierney recently admitted income looked like it would fall further next year and it is understood the council is facing into a potential €25m deficit for 2011.
In a bid to save €1m, plans were drawn up this year for the controversial closure of swimming pools at Sean McDermott Street, Crumlin and Coolock in June.
Difficulties
However, following an intense campaign by locals, €300,000 was found to keep them open until the end of the year – but their future is uncertain.
Figures released by the council show that €100,000 of the bus stop bill was spent on re-laying electrical cables, uprooting seven trees, planting replacement trees in a new location and moving an existing bus stop to make room for dedicated car-parking spaces for wheelchair users. A low wall had to be built to hold in earth that was disturbed behind the shelter, while the existing bus stop was upgraded with a new surface, pole and sign.
The €70,000 spend included the laying of 200 metres of footpaths in front of DCU, re-planting grassy areas in front of the college and installing public lights.
The costs are believed to have soared because of unforeseen difficulties with the bus stop’s location.
The bill will ultimately be paid by the taxpayer, as the cost will be reimbursed to Dublin City Council by the Department of Transport.
Last night, a spokeswoman for Dublin City Council refused to comment on calls for an investigation into the upgrade.
The Department of Transport also refused to comment on the revelations.
Holy Jaysus.
:o
That’s the equivalent of 17,000,000 cola bottles.
When you think about it like that it really hits home
1 - the whole country is fucked for generations
2 - id have merged the two banks and given carte blanche to a management team of the likes of Elderfield to cut costs wherever necessary. They wouldnt be bloated prob would have resulted in thousands of job losses but short term pain was necessary. The state running this super bank would only be a temporary measure, with the competition authority blessing they would try to attract a buyer such as Santander or one of those to come in and run it. Irish permanent, Acc, ulster etc would still be around
3 - without the invisible hand of the State getting involve - Anglo, irish nationwide, BOI and AIB were bust. We have bankrupt the country keeping them afloat. the country is bust now anyway. They should just have been liquidated (Anglo and Irish nationwide) - other two merged. Every company and person wouldnt have gone bankrupt but a lot more than Seanie Fitz who deserve their day out in the commercial court are being let away with it to the detriment of the country as a whole. We would have reached rock bottom faster and been in a better position to climb out of the mess as a result. Instead of lobbing 10bn at Anglo like you would lob a shit into a jacks and flushed away, that money could have been spent on a high speed national broadband network or other infrastructure projects that would return something.
farmer yeah I take the point of the EU getting involved. the european central bank kept us away from the IMF so felt they could probably justifiably call the shots as a result. In any case there is no doubt that NAMA is an unprecedented waste of taxpayers money. Nothing will ever come close.